Communist Party of India general secretary A. B. Bardhan on Friday opposed Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's decision to go ahead with land acquisition for Posco-India's steel plant by excluding 300 acres of private land out of the 4,004 acres earmarked for the project in Jagatsinghpur district.
“Leaving 300 acres out of the 4,000-odd acres is no solution. The State government should shift the project to any other location where there would be little or no displacement,” Mr. Bardhan said at a press conference here.
At a meeting of the Member of Parliament and legislators from Jagatsinghpur on Thursday, Mr. Patnaik said his government would give a proposal to Posco-India to exclude 300 acres in the Dhinkia gram panchayat from the project area. He also said a dialogue would be initiated between senior administration officials and representatives of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti.
Mr. Bardhan welcomed the government's willingness to hold talks with those opposing the project, but said the demand for shifting the project to some other area would remain unchanged even if the matter went to the Chief Minister for discussions.
Any attempt by the State government to acquire land till the talks were over would be strongly resisted by thousands of agitating villagers in the gram panchayats of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujang, who were facing displacement and loss of livelihood.
He also blamed the State government for “stage-managing” the decisions of different gram sabhas in villages under these gram panchayats on the occupation of forestland by villagers for several generations. He demanded that the State government bring out a White Paper on the project, spelling out its consequences for the State and people.
He said the report given by the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Central) on the Posco project controversy in the past should be made public.
